Full Forum Access!!! New Club Members must contact Sean O'Sullivan to gain FULL forum access. If you cannot see the "Members Only" section, you do not have full access!!! Please email Sean at forumadmin@phoenixkayakclub.com.

Pictured: The team getting in some Selfie training.The team have moved from Baku to Mingachevir which is where they will host the Canoe Sprint competition during the Baku 2015 Games.

The competition will run from the 14th –16th June. Over three exciting days, 350 athletes (205 men and 145 women) will take to the water and attempt to paddle their way to a gold medal. There will be twelve kayaking events (male and female) and three canoe events (male only). The Olympic distances for men are 200m and 1,000m, for women are 200m and 500m.

The field of play at Mingachevir is a regatta course, measuring 1,000m in length with a race lane depth greater than 10m.

For the Canoe Sprint competition, it will be presented with 9 lanes and with start lines at 200m, 500m, 1000m and 5000m meeting the ICF Canoe Sprint competition rules.

We held another level 1 coaching course last weekend at the Canoeing Ireland training centre, strawberry beds. They were facilitated by Benny Cullen and Neil Fleming. The six paddlers are now well equipped to head out into the wilds of the kayaking community to share their coaching knowledge and skills on the lakes, rivers and seas of Ireland. All with the aim of inspiring and develop our community.

RIO 2016

We got some mid construction pictures from the Rio Canoe Slalom course. Our slalom athletes will be racing there this November at the Rio Test event.

Closer to Home:

Sea Kayak Around Ireland

Check out the guys paddling around Ireland, lets hope the weather will stay good for them.Jon Hynes and & Sean Cahill have got it in into their heads that they need to kayak around Ireland….. Both are lifelong kayakers and have shared many adventures in the past together but their round Ireland by sea kayak journey will be their toughest. This has been on the cards for a few years now which gave them plenty of time to work on their PR campaign. Check out their website and follow them on Facebook.

Let’s show our support and follow them on their “this is not a midlife crisis adventure …… “ Click Here

The simple things like being out in a blow feeling the exposure and then diving behind a boulder to get some shelter and get a brew on and a few slices of fruit cake to fuel the miles ahead. I think sea kayaking makes you appreciate food and sharing it with others even more.

I enjoy the campcraft as much as the kayaking!

Lough Erne Marathon Race

If your feeling energetic then make sure you get up to the Erne this weekend for the Erne Marathon race. See the canoe marathon Ireland facebook page for more details.

Canoeing Ireland Board of Management

Now last but not least, Wednesday June 10th saw the first Canoeing Ireland corporate governance training session for the board. This was hosted by Carmichael House (www.carmichaelcentre.ie). The board members who attended got some great “takeaways” from the session and we don’t mean the pizza.

Note: the names in the above drawing have been changed as a precaution ……..